Overseas money from past campaigns: Wu

Yunlin County Magistrate Su Chi-fen, indicted for corruption in yet another case, has just resumed eating after a 10-day hunger strike that ended late Friday night when she was released from jail.

The investigations targeting the three opposition leaders and the subsequent detentions have sparked protests from the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party and their supporters who claim the corruption charges are politically motivated.

A prison official said yesterday ex-President Chen, who has been fasting since he was locked up Wednesday, said he has shown signs of nausea and acid reflux.

Li Ta-chu, deputy warden of the Taipei Penitentiary where Chen has been detained, said the ex-president’s blood pressure blood sugar levels ramin normal.

Chen’s conditions are being monitored closely, and doctors will evaluate whether nutrition injections will be needed, Li said.

Chiayi Magistrate Chen was entering the fifth day of his hunger strike yesterday, with prison officials saying his health remained normal.

Liao Wen-chen, an official with the Chiayi Penitentiary, said Chen still looked good. But doctors has been checking his blood sugar levels three times a day, Liao said.

If he continues his strike, the prison may have to give him nutrition injections, the official added.

DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen faulted prosecutors for dragging their feet in their investigation in the Chiayi chief’s case during the 18 days since taking him into custody.

She said prosecutors have never questioned Chen again during the period, leaving him in custody in total neglect of his human rights.

Tsai and a few DPP legislators met Chen’s supporters who continued their daily nine-to-five demonstration outside the Chiayi jail to protest the detention.

They have vowed to continue their actions until the magistrate is released.

In Yunlin, Magistrate Su’s conditions was improving after a night’s rest at the hospital where she received treatments and ate some porridge, her first taste of food following 250 hours of huger striking.

She had been taken to the hospital after the court released her from custody around Friday midnight.

Her sister said the magistrate had a brief discussion with her aides on county affairs in the morning while still in hospital.

According to the law, prosecutors, with court permission, could detain suspects for up to four months without bring formal charges.

It is common for prosecutors to deny detained suspects any visitors except their lawyers so as to prevent them from orchestrating testimonies with accomplices.

Ex-President Chen is under investigation for embezzlement, bribe-taking, money laundering and illegally removing classified documents from the Presidential Office.

In his case, several other people, including his aides, have also been detained incommunicado.

Prosecutors yesterday also went to his residence in Taipei to interrogate his wheelchair-bound wife, Wu Shu-chen, another major suspect in the probe.

Magistrate Su has been formally indicted for allegedly taking a total of NT$21 million in bribes in two separate cases involving the granting of a permit to a landfill operator and the expansion of the Yunlin branch of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital.

Prosecutors have recommended a prison term of 15 years for her.

Magistrate Chen is suspected of leaking confidential information to help a businessman win a government project worth more than NT$650 million.

But former DPP Chairman Shih Ming-teh has remarked that former President Chen’s hunger strike would not turn him into a political prisoner.

Shih in 2006 launched a massive campaign trying to oust Chen from office after prosecutors started a corruption probe targeting the Chen family.

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